2012 Toyota Prius

My Prius, along with the thousands of others this has apparently happened to according to a quick online search, has had the C1391 code appear, indicating a failed brake actuator and accumulator. It, like the thousands of Priuses from this generation, have had these faulty brake pump systems develop a leak and begin to fail. You will hear a whirring and hissing noise constantly when it starts going out, eventually resulting in a Christmas tree of dash warning lights and reduced braking due to a failsafe kicking on. Toyota apparently issued a "customer service bulletin" that is now ineffective as it only covered if you had the system fail within 10 years of manufactor or 150,000 miles AND had the codes appear. Most people's Priuses go out AFTER this, unless you're driving it like you stole it. It is a hefty repair too, being quoted at over $3000 at the Toyota STEALSRSHIP!! I have since gone to an independent mechanic and had one portion replaced in hopes that would fix the issue, but it turns out both the actuator and accumulator are needed to be replaced, which is extremely expensive, more so for the actuator than the accumulator, but still exorbitantly expensive. In conjunction with this, Toyota further added difficulties by making their paet numbers they have listed different from the mark number engraved on the part, so buying third party is made a bigger hassle by this as they will not know for certain the part number. This is a huge safety concern as this affects the vehicle's ability to brake. Their service bulletin was the equivalent of offering people bandaids years before they'd be anywhere to getting a cut!! Please investigate and please please PLEASE lead to Toyota issuing an actual recall, regardless of miles or year from manufacture. More and more Priuses are reaching the time where this will occur and it's a huge safety concern, if not an environmental concern when people start disposing of Priuses due to this massive failure with hefty repair bills.

The brake booster and brake booster pump assemblies had to be replaced at the dealership. Parts are not available for inspection as far as I know. We were warned by the dealership that we should not be driving the car because the brakes could completely fail at any moment if we didn't have parts replaced. That would have been dangerous for us and anyone else sharing the road with us. On a Sunday, leaving our house and driving down our street, three lights turned on on the dashboard display - traction, brakes, and ABS - and the brakes felt softer and less responsive than normal. After having gotten a diagnosis and repair estimate from the dealership, we carefully drove the car home to consider our options. We tried to get a second opinion from a trusted mechanic, but it sounded like the parts we needed were tightly monitored by Toyota and the original estimate for the repair from the dealership was above $3,000. After a few days, the dashboard warning lights turned off and the brakes felt back to normal. The whirring noise which had been happening roughly every 4 seconds had slowed to roughly every 10-12 seconds. We were told that this turning off of the lights sometimes happened, but that the issue was still the same. Prior to these lights turning on, the car had been making a lot of the whirring noises for some time, but it had never thrown the codes before that would have been picked up by a mechanic. At the time, we didn't recognize the sounds as a sign of an impending commonly recognized failure - only after doing some research did we find that this was a very common problem for a lot of Prius owners, especially for the given year and number of miles we had. There is an "extended warranty" for this part and repair, but while we were within the mileage limit, we were outside of the time limit and we were told at the dealership that Toyota would be inflexible about paying for the repairs.

While driving my 2012 Toyota Prius, the traction control, brake, and ABS warning lights all came on at the same time. I used a home OBD scanner but it didn’t show any diagnostic codes. After some research and inspection, I discovered that the issue was related to a faulty brake booster and accumulator—something I’ve learned is a common problem with this model. I was relieved to hear that Toyota has an extended warranty on these parts. However, last night while driving, the brakes suddenly stopped functioning properly. It became very difficult to slow down, which put me in a dangerous situation. I’m deeply concerned about the safety risks this defect poses and believe this issue deserves further attention.

This Prius Hybrid is my [XXX] mother's car which she got thinking is was a very safe and reliable vehicle. She purchased the vehicle from a Toyota dealership here in Maine on [XXX]. Last week while driving down the road, all of a sudden, every brake warning light lit up the dashboard and the brakes became extremely unresponsive. It scared us both to death but thank goodness, I was driving when this happened. After doing some research, I have discovered that this a very well known brake issue with the 2010-2015 Prius cars. I cannot for the life of me understand how this major safety defect has not been made into an actual safety recall. I did contact Toyota customer service and they will not help us at all. Even though my mother has only had the car for just under 9 years and is well under the allotted mileage, they said their Customer Support Program (ZJB) only covers 10 years from the day the car was first driven after production. Her Prius now is inoperable and the repair costs are in the thousands. We are so incredibly disappointed with Toyota and the safety board for allowing this to happen to all of the defective Prius owners. I hope you will reconsider and do the right thing and recall these cars before someone does get into an accident where they are injured or killed. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

I am reporting a sudden and dangerous failure of the brake booster in my 2012 Toyota Prius. While driving, I experienced a loss of braking power, accompanied by several warning lights including ABS, Brake, and the Traction Control system. The brake pedal became extremely stiff and unresponsive, significantly increasing the stopping distance. This failure nearly caused an accident, as I was unable to stop quickly enough when traffic slowed unexpectedly. This issue happened without warning and is a serious safety risk. I later discovered this is a common and widely reported defect in 2010–2015 Toyota Prius models. Toyota issued an extended warranty (Customer Support Program ZE3) to cover this known brake booster defect — but only for vehicles within 10 years or 150,000 miles. While my Prius has well under 150,000 miles, it is just over 10 years old, which disqualifies me from coverage, leaving me with a repair estimate over $4,000 for a well-documented manufacturer defect. This seems grossly unfair, especially for responsible owners with low-mileage, well-maintained vehicles. Toyota’s refusal to issue a formal recall and instead offering only limited support puts millions of Prius drivers at risk. A brake system failure of this kind should qualify as a safety defect and trigger a mandatory recall, not a quietly limited program with arbitrary expiration dates. I urge NHTSA to investigate this issue further and consider a recall of the defective brake booster system in these Prius models to protect public safety and ensure fair treatment for affected owners. Thank you.

My brakes began making a funny noise when I used them. I only have 80000 on the car and do regular maintenance. I took it in because it seemed the brake pedal was getting spongy as well. They ran in through diagnostic tests and determined the braking module or brake booster/master assembly was bad. This seems to be an issues with Toyota and should be addressed immediately. It is an expensive fix for a low mileage car

Toyota installed known faulty brake booster and master cylinder systems in Prius C models manufactured 2012-2014. Knowing these systems would fail, but not wanting to pay for their mistake, they created a basically secret "extended warranty program" for owners to get their brake booster replaced ONLY IF for a specific 2 year time frame their brakes failed with a certain DTC code. Knowing that many prius owners would not actually receive the notification nor had driven their vehicle enough miles for the braking system to fail, they got away without having to correct their issue. The brakes literally just fail and stop working in the middle of the highway, causing extreme safety concerns and accidents with no responsibility from Toyota.